Program Test Management – A Survival Kit

Using practical experience from several large testing programs this presentation will illustrate effective techniques for successful Program Test Management, presented in the form of A Survival Kit.

Victorinox Swiss Army Knife

Why is this needed? Well although the role of Program Test Manager is now firmly established in the sphere of testing, generally in large test organisations or on large many 10s or 100s of millions of dollar value programs, there isn’t a clear view of what the role is, how to perform it, or what success looks like.

Should the Program Test Manager be an über-manager in control of everything, or is this role more of an aggregation and reporting function? This presentation will look at the expectations for the role, and how these can be markedly different.

It also shares the critical factors for successful program test management, including oversight of the testing products and deliverables; matrix management of test managers; stakeholder, milestone, resource, and dependency management; and the softer but vital skills of influence and negotiation with very senior managers.

The talk will be illustrated by examples from real life, relating experience gained on several large testing programs which build into a practical model (or survival kit), easily understood by all, covering the key test management areas of organization, people, process, tools, and metrics—that your organization can adapt for its needs.